Facility issue

The week before Christmas, I phoned Worthing Council to check if the disabled toilet in Buckingham Road would be usable over the Christmas period.

My brother called twice and we were told that it was shut one day a year, so it probably would be shut on Christmas Day, but that we would be called back with confirmation or, hopefully, agreement that it would be usable.

My sister-in-law has a cruel illness, multiple system atrophy, which is as it sounds.

She can no longer walk or even stand unaided. However, she and my brother have kept going with humour – which helps everyone and he is the only one who knows how to lift her, etc. The WC was indeed shut on Christmas day – I live in the same road.

On Boxing Day, my sister-in-law needed to use the toilet before returning to their home in Warwick, having checked out of their hotel and unable to use the WC in my house as it is upstairs. We went to the Buckingham Road WC and the public disability WC was padlocked. My brother had to take his wife to the normal ladies’ and stay with her to help, in the ladies’.

She was very distressed and he was embarrassed.

My thanks to the lovely young and not-so-young ladies who, when I warned them my brother was in the ladies’, were supportive and unconcerned.

Worthing Council, on the other hand, should have a serious rethink about their facilities – how long does it take to unlock a padlock?